Perseid Meteor Shower 2016

August 16, 2016

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PhotographersHoward Cohen; Greg Parker
Summary AuthorsHoward Cohen; Greg Parker

Shown above is a beautifully colored Perseid meteor, just exiting Perseus, and taking aim for the Pleiades star cluster. The photo at bottom is a wider view that includes the Milky Way. The bright star near the meteor is Vega. It's a characteristic of the Perseids that, in some, you can see color like this - red at the front and green in the tail. Metallic atoms and molecules at the altitude of the meteor (about 60 mi or 100 km for Perseid meteors) can result in the colors seen in some trails. Top photo taken from just outside Gainesville, Florida, on August 13, 2016. Bottom photo taken at the New Forest Observatory in England on August 11, 2016.

Photo Details: Top - Canon 5D II camera on fixed mount; 50 mm; f/1.8 lens; 20-second exposure; ISO 1250; taken at 08:57 UT; image trimmed from the original.